woman walking: Give me an M!

We're overdue for a Simone update!

Breaking news: Simone learns to swing by herself. We have been working on this for years, plural. Somehow it clicked today. I asked her what the difference was and she said she pushed/pulled on the "strings" harder. Way to go, Simone!

Simone can be generous. The most common recipient of her generosity is Noemi. More than once she's given Noemi "the pink one" or the rest of her frozen yogurt stick.

Simone can be competitive. If she seems someone going for something she wants, Simone will dive right in there and try to snatch it out of their hands. She sometimes cries when she loses board games.

Simone can negotiate and bargain. It feels like every meal is a negotiation. We wish she would just eat her food and do it in a timely manner.

Simone copies her friends. Ah, peer influence is already at hand. One friend has a teenage older sister...that's what I blame Simone's picking up of "I'm sexy and I know it" on. We've been having discussions about who is sexy (I said only grownups are sexy) and what is sexy (Is this sexy, mommy?).

Simone likes science (though not Sid the Science Kid). She's told me this more than once. We went to a science series at the library. I definitely want to encourage this and not just her interest in art and dance. She also has a recent interest in chess since Ezer taught her.

Simone is concerned about money. She understands that we only buy certain things when they are on sale or that some things cost too much. She says that she wants to have a garage sale so she'll have money since we can't have a job (saw this on Caillou). She complains that she never finds pennies anymore (for her piggy bank).

Simone doesn't miss a beat. Her school friend is having her birthday party at an inflatable jumpy place on a Sunday from 10am-12pm. The time and location (opposite way from the city) just doesn't work with our church schedule. Last week I talked to her about only missing church for something really, really important. Today she said brought up the fact that we didn't go to church when daddy ran the marathon. True...I told her I would talk to her father.

Much more to say...will try to do a part II and maybe another interview with her!

This is from when Simone was in her "beads in the hair" phase:

This is one of Simone's Top Chef creations. She loves to play "reality show." She doesn't call it that. She calls it, "Let's play The Voice. Let's play fashion show. Let's play..."

Her love for ballet is enduring. She borrowed a couple of kid-oriented ballet DVDs from the library and studied them closely.

We went to a maple syrup outing. It was soooo cold the sap wasn't running. Simone insisted on wearing her tutu. Mom should have overridden her and made her wear snowpants on top of them.

Drill, baby, drill!

Yay for warm pancakes and syrup!

Simone is very proud of herself for now being able to climb on top of and play on this part of the train.

Whoa!

Grandad took the training wheels AND pedals off the bike Simone has in California. This is her first day trying her new "balance bike."

Striking a pose.

Still lovin' that shell collecting. I should probably make her put them back, eh?

Fountains are fun! We're looking forward to the Oak Park park ones being turned on Memorial Day (especially considering it was 92 yesterday!).

We have a wii Just Dance 3 fanatic on our hands. At Grandma's house she would do this for an hour in the morning by herself. She hearts Katy Perry and is often heard saying, "I know that song," when we listen to the radio in the car now.